How do I read and write a C# string Dictionary to a file?

Question

I have a Dictionary object and I want to write to disk and be able to read it from disk. Ideally I would avoid any 3rd party libraries. Is there a simple way to do this with

Answer 1

Without a Third Party like JSON.Net, Use JavaScriptSerializer:

File.WriteAllText("SomeFile.Txt", new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(dictionary));

Getting dictionary back from file:

var dictionary = new JavaScriptSerializer()
    .Deserialize>(File.ReadAllText("SomeFile.txt"));

Only thing to remember is to add reference to System.Web.Extensions under project references and then you will be able to use JavaScriptSerializer after using System.Web.Script.Serialization;

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Or with JSON.Net you can serialize your dictionary to JSON and then write it to file and then deserialize it, like:

Dictionary dictionary = new Dictionary();
dictionary.Add("1", "Some value 1");
dictionary.Add("2", "Something");

Storing Dictionary in file:

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dictionary);
File.WriteAllText("SomeFile.Txt", json);

Getting Dictionary back from file:

Dictionary previousDictionary =
 JsonConvert.DeserializeObject>
                                 (File.ReadAllText("SomeFile.txt"));

For comparison between the two options see: JSON.NET JsonConvert vs .NET JavaScriptSerializer